Rebels, backed by Turkish tanks, warplanes, close in on strategic al-Bab in northern Syria. turkey has sent 300 commandos to northern Syria to reinforce "Euphrates Shield" and push Islamic State and Kurdish fighters alike back from the border.

Preparations are under way for a final operation by Turkish-backed rebels on the Islamic State-controlled city of al-Bab in northern Syria, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said on Monday.

The city is of strategic importance to Turkey, partly because Kurdish-dominated militias have also been trying to take it from the jihadists.

Turkey-backed rebels closed in on an Islamic State-held city in northern Syria with Turkish tanks and warplanes supporting the assault, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said last week.

Turkish state media said Ankara had sent 300 commandos to northern Syria to reinforce "Euphrates Shield," the operation it launched three and a half months ago to push both Islamic State and Kurdish fighters back from the border.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the war through a network of sources in the country, confirmed there was an increased number of Turkish troops with the Euphrates Shield forces.

Ankara is determined to prevent the Kurdish YPG militia, which it sees as a hostile force, from joining up cantons it controls along the Turkish border, fearing that would embolden Kurdish separatism at home.

Speaking at a news conference after a cabinet meeting, Kurtulmus also said humanitarian aid shipments to Syria's Aleppo should not depend on the establishment of a cease-fire and called on the international community to help set up an aid convoy.

Also on Monday, a Turkish fighter jet on a training mission crashed on its final approach to an airport in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir. Turkey's military said the pilot had ejected from the plane and was unharmed.

Note this is how to post objectionable material... ie take away the "(img)(/img)" tags (note in your post the brackets are square but I have made them curved so you can see them), and add a warning describing the image in the link.

For the first time since launching its anti-terror aerial campaign in Syria, Russian warplanes have reportedly hit ISIS targets around the city of al-Bab, where Turkey and its allied militants are allegedly fighting the terrorist group.

On Thursday, Turkey’s Dogan news agency quoted military sources as saying that the Russian air raids took place on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the “strikes suspected to be Russian” had been hitting al-Bab for the last two days “in support of the Turkish operation.”

If that chart is accurate (and it indeed looks accurate) it shows that ISIS indeed planned to have Turkey and SDF race for Al Bab while hitting them both in the process. Once again IS is a death cult, but a clever one, these guys actually are showing more and more traces of a military thinking with an ideological crust built upon nobodies blood and bones.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Russian and Turkish warplanes carried out several joint combat flights over ISIL's concentration centers in the town of al-Bab in Northern Aleppo, the Turkish army announced in a statement.

The statement said that the Russian fighter jets bombed ISIL's positions in al-Bab another time to support the Euphrates Shield Operation started by Ankara in August.

Ankara's statement went on to say that Turkish and Russian fighter jets carried out joint aerial operation against ISIL's centers in al-Bab on the first day of 2017.

Last Monday, the Russian Air Force started targeting ISIL's positions in the town of al-Bab to back up the Turkish Army and its militant allies for the first time since the start of the Euphrates Shield Operation in Northern Syria.

Massdar news quoted a military source in Kuweires airbase as saying that the Russian fighter jets of Su24 and Su34 bombed ISIL's positions in al-Bab Northeast of Aleppo for the first time following improvement of relations between Ankara and Moscow.

KoTeMoRe wrote:There's only one new "leopard lost" in those pictures, most were already seen during the hot phase of Al Bab.

However I've been told at least 3 more tanks were hit but recovered.

So what's the total now for Leopard losses? 11 or 12 or 13?How about the Sabra tanks and others?

Probably 10~ Leopard 2A4 and 15~ M60T Sabra. We also lost M60A3 in the past but We don't use it in Syria anymore.

The main problem of the Turkish Land Forces is our tanks(M60A3, M60T, Leopard 1 and Leopard 2A4) don't have Laser warning receiver and Active protection system. Only M60T has a Reactive Armor. Without these systems, our tanks have no chance against the ATGM's.